Competition intensified on the penultimate day of the inaugural Libby Kosmala Para Futures Cup at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), as Australia’s next generation of Para athletes continued to showcase their potential.

With valuable points on offer across badminton, cycling and rowing, the morning produced standout individual performances and a shifting team leaderboard.

In the afternoon session, the four teams contested wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball, badminton and swimming with crucial points up for grabs. The action on the wheelchair rugby court, in particular, was fierce as interstate rivalry manifested into some heavy contact between opposing teams.

Team South (VIS/TIS) struck first, taking top honours in badminton ahead of Team West (SASI/WAIS), Team East (NSWIS/ACTAS) and Team North (QAS/NT), before attention shifted to the AIS Performance Gym for the rowing and cycling competitions.

Around the AIS, athletes who had only recently met were now among each other’s most vocal supporters, gathering around ergometers, yelling encouragement and sharing in performances regardless of the colours being worn.

Paralympic champions Emily Petricola, Jed Altschwager and Nikki Ayers were among those watching closely, their experience now being poured back into athletes at the beginning of their own journeys.

On the cycling ergometers, Team West topped the standings ahead of South, East and North, perhaps unsurprising given South Australia’s rich Para cycling pedigree and with Paralympic and world champion Petricola, now lead of the SASI Para Unit, overseeing proceedings.

Caitlin Hannen-Williams produced the leading performance in the women’s six-second sprint, recording a factored power of 915.20 watts for West, with teammate Alyssa Rubessa second on 874.17, while Hugh Terry added another victory for West in the men’s sprint, collecting the maximum 100 points. In the gruelling two-minutes time trial, Team South’s Mia Halliday averaged an impressive 366 watts across the full time trial to take the women’s honours and 100 points, while East’s Ethan Sonter prevailed in the men’s event.

The advantage swung back to South on the rowing ergometers, where they narrowly edged West for the overall win, followed by East and North – leaving Team West leader and Paralympic rowing champion Altschwager to concede bragging rights in his own discipline. Emma Barnett collected 100 points for South in the women’s 500m while Sonter completed an impressive double for East by adding the men’s rowing win to his cycling victory.

Not every significant performance was reflected at the top of the standings as Team West’s Ben Oates was awarded 25 Cup points for “exceptional effort” in his 500m row, his endeavour recognised alongside the morning’s fastest times and biggest numbers.

Taking it all in was Australian Sports Commission Director, Paralympic Unit, Vic Moore, watching something that had existed for years in plans, meetings and conversations come vividly to life around her. The Para System Uplift, led by the ASC and Paralympics Australia with the National Institute Network, has established dedicated Para Sport Units around the country. The Para Futures Cup has brought their athletes together in a competitive environment unlike many, if any, have previously experienced.

“Sometimes when you’re doing a lot of work from offices, it’s hard to understand the real movement that we’ve had forward,” Moore said. “To bring all these athletes together and really see that there’s some real potential out there has been really amazing.”

“To see the interactions between athletes – the real competitive nature that we’re seeing come through and the support that the athletes are all giving each other, it has just been really epic.”

For Moore, that passing of experience from one generation to the next was part of a much bigger opportunity created by bringing athletes with different impairments, backgrounds and sporting experiences together. “This real multi-sport, multi-class environment is really critical for Para sport and creating that competitive environment that they often don’t get when they’re siloed in their own context,” she said.

“This is obviously a pilot program. I think there’s been some real wins with it. We’ll obviously have some big learnings as well.”

Heading into the final day, Team West (1202 points) holds the overall lead on the points tally, having moved from third place after day one and second place on day two.

But the Libby Kosmala Para Futures Cup is not their keeping just yet, with North (1161 points), East (982 points) and South (900) all capable of climbing the rankings during the athletics competition on Monday that concludes the program.

Australian Sports Commission/Paralympics Australia

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